GenOn Energy

On December 3, 2010, RRI Energy merged with Mirant to form GenOn Energy, and the corporate names and logos of both RRI Energy and Mirant were retired.

According to its website, GenOn Energy, Inc. (NYSE: GEN) "is one of the largest generators of wholesale electricity in the United States. With power generation facilities located in key regions of the country and a generation portfolio of approximately 24,200 megawatts. GenOn's portfolio of power generation facilities includes baseload, intermediate and peaking units using coal, natural gas and oil to generate electricity." GenOn Energy is one of the largest power plant owners in the United States, and has an ownership stake in 18 power plants in Pennsylvania alone.

GenOn Northeast is a subsidiary of Houston-based GenOn Energy Inc., along with Public Service Enterprise Group of Newark, N.J. and Constellation Energy Group of Baltimore, as well as others.

Merger to create GenOn Energy
On April 11, 2010, RRI Energy and Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. announced an agreement to merge in a $1.6 billion all-stock deal, which would create one of the largest independent power plant operators in the country. The new company, to be named GenOn Energy, would be based in Houston but led by Mirant's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward Muller until 2013. At that time he will retire and Mark Jacobs, the president and chief operating officer of RRI Energy, will become CEO of GenOn. The new company has a market capitalization of about $3 billion, owning or operating 47 plants in 12 states capable of generating more than 24,650 megawatts of power. The merger was completed on December 3, 2010.

GenOn pays $5 million settlement for violations
In June 2011, GenOn Northeast Management Co. agreed to pay $5 million to settle a 2007 lawsuit against its Conemaugh Generating Station, alleging discharges of potentially toxic heavy metals helped pollute a river and violated its permits thousands of times. The plant sits on the Conemaugh River, about 50 miles east of Pittsburgh.

Since at least 2005, the plant violated the federal Clean Water Act "practically every day" by discharging excessive amounts of aluminum, boron, iron, manganese and selenium in the approximately 2 million gallons of water it dumped into the Conemaugh each day, according to PennEnvironment and the Sierra Club, the environmental advocacy groups that filed lawsuit. Some of the metals are toxic, and can harm aquatic life in a river already damaged by acid mine drainage from coal mines, the environmental groups say.

The $3.75 million portion of the settlement is the largest penalty in Pennsylvania history against a water polluter under the citizen enforcement provision of the federal Clean Water Act. Of that, $3.5 million is would help support environmental cleanups in the Conemaugh River watershed, while $250,000 is a civil penalty. GenOn also must pay $1.25 million for the groups' legal expenses.

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